16 Year Old Daughters

This is my daughter a few days ago while on vacation in Colorado. She is a classic female teenager in my mind. One minute she is laughing and having a ball (above), the next she is sullen and withdrawn (below). During the week we spent in CO, she went from having a day of fun with me (small miracle) on the slopes, to basically not speaking to anyone the following day. Some day I hope to have a better understanding of just how this happens. Is it hormones? The extra chromosome of a female? My guess is that if I can figure it out, I could become very rich selling how to 'even out' the imbalances of the mood.

Another thing that is funny about my daughter, she has more pictures of herself on her camera than anything or anybody else. She will strike some goofy 'gangsta' (her phrase) pose and snap a picture of herself. The boys in the family we were vacationing with were merciless in their teasing when they learned that one. I don't think they will change her behavior on this one. What she does with the pictures, I have no idea.

Loving 45 degrees and grey skies!! Small caliber weapon anyone?

46 hours of Bliss

I left Toledo at 5pm on Thursday headed for a buddies cottage on Lake Charlevoix. This is what my FJ looked like on departure: Two pair of tele skis and my 29er with the associated gear. Goal: 6 for 1 day at Boyne on Friday and a nice mtb ride on Saturday on my way home.

Made it to East Jordan safely and hung with my buddy Blair. We have known each other since 6th grade, so even though we only see each other a couple of times a year, it is always a good time. We woke up Friday to 40 degrees and rain at the cottage. The first contact with Andy Brown was he was driving in rain as well, occasionally getting snowflakes. We headed out for breakfast and made the call to take our ski stuff. Mediocre breakfast was followed by a drive in the rain to Boyne, spirits were down and we were figuring out how to spend our day. We got to the parking lot and called Andy to see where he was - half an hour away. By the time he got there, the rain had stopped and it was time to strap on the boards. It turned out to be a pretty decent day of spring skiing, unfortunately for the Boyne folks, it is only December. We managed to get lots of turns in since the lines were not too bad. Wore ourselves (at least the older legs in the group) by about 3 and called it a day.

Woke up the next morning to a warm and dry day. Closed up the cottage, went to breakfast and then headed south. Uneventful drive. Ground was looking dry enough as I drove south so I stopped off at Brighton Rec. to see how the trails were. They were in mint condition, apparently no rain on them like there was up north. I rode both loops and felt a little sluggish after doing lunges for a few hours the day before on my tele skis. When I finished, it turns out to have been one of my best times ever. Must have been riding better than it felt.

Not a bad couple of days for living in beautiful northwest Ohio!!!! 

Cheap Entertainment

This was probably the cheapest entertainment I have had in some time. Watching my 6 year old nephew play hockey for an hour was an absolute hoot! They are at the stage where they are just beginning to understand their positions on the ice and how to skate reasonably well. The funny part is when one goes down, they inevitably take down at least one and up to 3 or 4 others and you get a pile of kids trying to stand back up. That's my brother as the 'on ice' coach standing behind his son.

The cheap part is that they are not my kids, I get to just show up and watch. My brother gets to pay the freight. This is his oldest and he has twin boys (age 4) who are chomping at the bit to get going in the sport as well. My only hope for him is that none of them decide they want to be a goalie, I understand that gets real expensive.

No one got lost!

Yesterday was a great day for riding. A light dusting of snow on the ground and I had not ridden my 29er in about 6 weeks, I think it missed me. Between cross racing and some tlc for it, it just didn't make it out of the house. The tlc was well worth it. It was returned to the womb to get refinished from top to bottom - b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!! I also sent the shock out to get refurbished and some adjustments made, new shim stack and new rebound spring primarily. It performed as anticipated - a bit quicker and livelier feel, but not bouncy.

After much negotiation, Island Lake was ruled out (good on a cross bike, but pretty boring on a mtb). Unfortunately, that meant we weren't going to get to ride with Tom (sorry Tom). The conclusion was the city loop in A2. The funny thing about that is that Rachel gets lost very easily and in fact got really lost the last time we did this ride. With that in mind, we headed to A2 with plenty of cold weather gear and our bikes. The ride up was its' usual entertaining event, but the real entertainment begins when we park. We parked at Mack Pool, a nice public pool in A2 that is convenient to the route I know for the loop. Inevitably, we are laughing pretty hard within minutes - it can be triggered by anything - music, the kid using the remote to the family car James Bond style (behind the back, under the leg, etc.), stories about items sold at garage sales when we were kids, or the people parking right next to us with five open spaces further away while we are changing(showtime). What should be a simple 3-5 minute process ends up taking 15-25 before we know what hit us.

I digress, the ride was a lot of fun. The snow provided enough lubrication to the trail to make you pay attention, yet not so much as to make it any extra work. Unfortunately, it covered up the puddles with a thin layer of ice and snow that made them hard to see and avoid. Mud and ice were a small problem, no biggie. Discovery for the day: Rachel hates going downhill. As much as I have ridden with her, that one had never been spelled out quite so clearly as yesterday. Something to be worked on.

The best part of the day no question: Zingerman's Bakehouse and Creamery. I have been to Zingerman's many, many times, but never these operations. Now that I know where they are, I will do my best to continue to support the A2 economy by going there. I easily could have spent a couple of hundred dollars without a doubt. For breakfast this morning - two slices of chocolate/cherry bread toasted with butter. What a way to get going in the morning!

The end of the beginning

It was a chilly day at Waterford yesterday. I was actually hoping there was going to be some snow on the ground to provide some extra entertainment. Instead, all we had was wind and cold. It was a day that required copious amounts of warming oil. The application session in the car with my training partner was just delightful. A fun way to start any day.

The preride revealed that it was still windy and cold. I was hoping that would change, but it didn't. The course was not really to my strengths, lots of long straight sections that require road skills and lots of power if you want to close gaps, or maintain them. Fortunately, Andy Brown and I were able to convince Dave to do call ups for the B's so when we showed up at the line was not going to be so important, althought we were there early anyway. At the whistle, the usual group shot to the front, Andy, JB, Joel, Eric, and myself. We managed to establish a gap and started working. Eric tumbled in the ravine at one point, but got back up to the group. At some point, JB and Joel dropped back, leaving Eric, Andy and I. On the second lap or early in the third, Eric put the hammer down and took off. Andy and I tried to get back on, but could not catch him initially. The reason I couldn't get us back up was that Andy's Mom kept yelling at me to slow down when I was in front, always listen to the Mom. At that point, the theory was that he would fade and come back to us if we were smart and kept working together. We may have been smart, but he was a helluva lot stronger yesterday. He never even thought about coming back to us, just rode off into the sunset as the expression goes. At that point, my thinking was to put myself in position to sprint for second with Andy. That was going according to plan until the last set of barriers. A slight bobble and I had visions of doing a Seaman into the barrier. That was enough to relegate me to 3rd. All in all, a pretty good race, not a great one for me. Props to Eric for crushing us, watch out in the Elites next year, the guy is tough.

In the Elite women, Rachel rode a great tactical race starting with the Masters. She almost caught Ann after spotting her a minute at the start. I think the final gap was around 15 seconds. Great race! The elite men's race had a smaller field than I had anticipated. The blue wave did their thing for a while, but the Wiz rained on that parade and rode a strong race to take a relatively easy second place. Jay Moncel rode a strong race and was just off the podium by a step. Great ride Jay!

Happy birthday and thanks to Robert at Tailwind for a great series!

Back to the title, this was my first cross campaign and I have to say, what a hoot! I found it to be populated by a great group of people who are out to compete hard and have some fun along the way. I am looking forward to continuing to race in cross in the years to come.

I spaced on taking any photos of the day - only some video of my tp going through the barriers. These can be had for the right price.